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Typography Matters: Using Type in Web Design

 

 

 

 

We are all looking for the best tips and tricks to make our website stand out from the crowd. So many terms are tossed around and UX best practices so frequently updated that it can be hard to keep up with all the latest jargon. One thing is for sure; a simple way to reach your audience and demonstrate your brand is through focus on font. A type-focused website generally offers straightforward navigation to viewers and allows for easily digestible information.

User Interface Design

Choosing a representative typeface and typographic styling allows the brand to send subtle messaging based on the vision of the company or social enterprise. In a sea of online competition, enterprises need to display their branding and messaging in a uniform context, but also in a way that is both bold, memorable, and professional.

Luckily, professional web design these days hinges on creativity and expression, so there is no need to create a drab and classic professional looking site to impress potential clients. In addition to choosing typefaces that represent your business, it is also essential to hire a professional web designer who can delineate appropriate line breaks and type size. Each of these characteristics will affect the way a reader moves across the webpage and will ease or hinder digestion of information. Losing connection with the reader at any point can cause frustration, and this can result from reading lines that are too lengthy across a page, or are too choppy and fragmented.

User Experience

When choosing a typeface, readability and ease should come first and foremost. While the content and substance of the text is important, it is also possible to send messaging by choosing a typeface that is representative of the brand or social enterprise. The chosen font should seamlessly complement the message of the text, as well as the broader messaging of the brand and vision. The chosen type will illicit subconscious and conscious ideas in a reader about the focus of the organization and its initiatives, and is a great opportunity to display a fun or clever style, or to demonstrate the seriousness of a social issue.

One example of a social enterprise that is using typeface to strengthen their message is the FEED company, founded by Laura Bush. The adherence to typeface begins with the FEED logo, which is often mounted on a burlap textured background and made to imitate a grain storage bag. The text upon the background almost immediately invokes a reference to food and, in this case, to the global hunger crisis. The FEED logo is used in all capital letters, and is uniform throughout web design branding and products. 

The current featured topic, in this example it is the Mother’s Day messaging, is displayed in a much more casual and invitational type. The ‘Meals Provided to Date’ section on the right of the page reintegrates the FEED logo typeface and ties in the true mission of the organization, which is not only to sell products, but to raise awareness of hunger and to integrate a social mission into each purchase on the site.

FEED is just one shining organization that is exemplifying exceptional use of evocative typeface through web design and social good marketing. This company is uniformly branded across their online platform and is able to maintain a strong identity and user friendliness with engaging content of a pressing social issue.

Making Successful Investments for the Social Good

When quality and price are equal, the majority of consumers globally (53% to be exact) will choose a product or service that offers a social good impact, or a product from a company that is investing in social change. Current consumers now prefer social innovation business models to the standard, profit-driven models that most companies were founded on. With so many channels of information available to the general public, people are not only aware of social and environmental problems, but are taking action to stand by and promote businesses that are socially driven. These companies are reaching their customers through effective social good marketing and authenticity.

The Importance of Having a Social Purpose

Authentic social purpose is an advantage for any company regardless of industry because it establishes a track record of sustainability and care for customers. A socially driven business that does good while making money is a step up from the method of corporate social conscience. Rather than exemplifying large companies that make money and donate or invest into social projects, the social mission is inherent in the business itself and cannot be separated from the company’s business model. Social purpose business can often be more sustainable and effective than a non-profit or charity, which depends on funding from other sources and whose goals and operations are often too dependent on availability of funding.

Social Challenges

Apart from investment, social change requires time, trust, and understanding. A successful social investment entails much more than creating a problem-solving product or service. Reaching out to contacts in the industry, establishing strategic partnerships with groups that may be outside the designated market, as well as collaborating with non-profit organizations and governments are all a part of success in social business. Social investments targeted to developing countries can be especially sophisticated from a legal standpoint, and often require extensive legal expertise.

Key Ingredient: Passion

Founding a socially focused business allows entrepreneurs to integrate their passions with professional business acumen. A great example of socially driven leadership is Blake Mycoskie who, in 2006, founded TOMS Shoes, a stylish shoe company built on the buy-a-pair, give-a-pair business & social model: for each pair of shoes the company sells, it donates another to disadvantage children in poor parts of the world. The company was inspired by Mycoskie’s personal travels to Argentina, where he saw that a great number of children were in need of shoes. To date, the company has given away over 35 million pairs of shoes, while recording whopping sales that have turned what once used to be an ambitious startup into one of the most popular and best loved casual shoes companies. The company has now increased its range of products to clothes, accessories, and eyewear, and gives away eyeglasses and eye health care when a pair of sunglasses is purchased.

Without Blake Mycoskie’s merging of passion and dedication, TOMS could have never achieved this amazing success. It is important that the founder, leadership team and core involved parties fully integrate and believe in the potential success of investments for the social good. Financially and morally rewarding as they are, investments for the social good involve challenges and difficulties that must be overcome by team driven by business success and social good.

Questions to Ask Before Making an Investment for the Social Good

Whether you plan to invest in an existing social purpose business or create your own, there are several crucial questions you should ask yourself:

Does my product or service solve a problem?
Is there a market for the product and service I am offering?
What values do I strive for?
How do I measure the social impact of my product or service?
Do I have a sustainable social innovation business model?

Only after you have clear answers to these questions should you move forward in making your investment.

The Bottom Line

Investments for the social good are inspiring, whether they are made by companies or individuals. But like any investments, they are not without their challenges and risks – in fact, such investments often turn out to be more difficult and demanding than traditional investments. On the upside, they are much more intrinsically rewarding. The majority of people who make a purchase today are motivated by a social impact strategy, so it is worthwhile for companies to establish these initiatives, and to fully integrate them into their business philosophy.  Social entrepreneurs are business-minded but are also firm on creating change in the world.  For more information about social entrepreneurship, see the work of a successful social entrepreneur utilizing online social platforms for change.